Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment byZastrow.

Life Structure and EnvironmentalInteractions

Levinson developed the concept of life structure which isimportant to the field of human services. This premise indicatesthat a person is shaped by personal interactions and one’senvironment. For this week’s Discussion, review the information inChapter 11 about Levinson’s theories and consider where you areaccording to the life structures defined.

Please respond to the following:

• Identify life structure and explain some of the passages whichyou have experienced during Preadulthood (birth to age 22) (is theformative time from conception to the end of adolescence) and Earlyadulthood (age 17 to age 45) (is the era in which people makechoices that significantly influence their lives and the era inwhich people display the greatest energy and experience the moststress).
  • Early adult transition (ages 17 to 22). During this transition(which may take three to five years), men move from pre-adulthoodinto adulthood. A person moves out of his or her parents' home andbecomes more financially and emotionally independent. Going tocollege or joining the military service serves as a transitionalinstitutional situation between being a child in a family andreaching full adult status.

  • At the heart of Levinson's theory is the concept of lifestructure. This term is defined as “the underlying pattern ordesign of a person's life at a given time” (Levinson, 1986, p. 6).A person's life structure shapes and is shaped by the person'sinteractions with the environment. Components of the life structureinclude the people, institutions, things, places, and causes that aperson decides are most important, as well as the dreams, values,and emotions that make them so. Most people build their lifestructures around their work and their families. Other importantaspects of one's life structure may include religion, racialidentification, ethnic heritage, societal events (such as wars andeconomic depressions), and hobbies.

    According to Levinson, life involves a number of passages: fromthe freedom of childhood to entering school; from school to thework world; from not dating to dating; from dating to breaking upor marrying; from marrying to divorce; and so on. Levinson seessome structure to these series of life passages.

• Include how personality was influenced by interactions and theenvironment.